SEC brass excited about replay for football

BATON ROUGE -- Less than 24 hours after the Southeastern Conference announced on Thursday that it would be using instant replay for football in the 2005 season, instant replay came into play.

LSU defeated Alabama 60-59 in the SEC women's basketball tournament Friday afternoon in Greenville, S.C., after television replays showed an apparent 3-pointer by Alabama that tied the game at 60 and sent it into overtime was actually a 2-pointer. The league athletic directors, presidents and chancellors voted in instant replay at a meetings before the tournament in Greenville.

"The votes were nearly unanimous," said SEC Associate Commissioner Charles Bloom on Friday. "The votes were held in conjunction with the tournament."

How ironic. Instant replays also ruled against a 3-pointer by the Arkansas men's team on Jan. 19 in Baton Rouge that had apparently gave the Razorbacks a 59-58 victory. The shot was ruled a 2-pointer and the game went into overtime at 58-58. LSU won 66-63 in overtime.

Instant replay has never been used in SEC football, though it was inadvertently used in an infamous LSU-Alabama game at Tiger Stadium in 2000 when officials looked at the giant replay screen, then changed a critical fumble recovery call that was in favor of Alabama and gave the ball to LSU. The Tigers went on to win 30-28. The SEC office never admitted its officials looked at the replay, though film showed they did.

The SEC is all for instant replay now after the success of it during the 2004 season in the Big Ten. Instead of coaches asking for a replay as is the case in the NFL, where games take significantly longer to play than in college, the Big Ten had an official decide if there was to be a replay. Replays were used in 28 of 57 league games. Of the 43 calls questioned, 21 were overturned. The SEC plans to use a similar system.

"Through every meeting and discussion with our coaches, athletic directors and presidents and chancellors, the use of instant replay received overwhelming support," SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said.

The league coaches voted for instant replay at the American Football Coaches Association meetings in Louisville in January. "That was also nearly unanimous," Bloom said.

LSU coach Les Miles, who experienced instant replay in the NFL as a Dallas Cowboys assistant, did not attend that meeting, but he said he would have voted for instant replay.

"I think it's an opportunity for officials to always make the right call," Miles said Friday. "They do a great job in general, but you never want to have an obvious mistake decide a game. I don't think there is any down side. I know it did not slow down games significantly in the Big Ten."

Miles, the former head coach at Oklahoma State in the Big 12 and an assistant at Michigan in the Big Ten in the 1980s and '90s, said the Big 12 has also been discussing a move to instant replay.

The SEC's decision comes on the heels of an obvious pass interference call against LSU cornerback Corey Webster that was not called in the end zone with Alabama leading 10-6 in the third quarter last season. Webster intercepted the ball after knocking down an Alabama receiver. Had Alabama scored a touchdown on this series, it would have taken a 17-6 lead. Instead, LSU went on to win 26-10.

Officials also allowed a major clock management mistake that led to Tennessee beating Florida 30-28 in the 2004 season. There have also been several missed or wrong calls in SEC games over the last several years.

"Most of the feedback we have received has been positive," Bloom said. "How the calls will be made and if we'll use it in just SEC games or also in nonconference games will be decided in the spring."

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SEC brass excited about replay for football

BATON ROUGE -- Less than 24 hours after the Southeastern Conference announced on Thursday that it would be using instant replay for football in the 2005 season, instant replay came into play.